Category: Renewable energy
According to a new study from Climatescope, developing nations are far outpacing developed ones when it comes to the installation of new renewable energy infrastructure.
The study monitored 55 developing countries, including emerging economies like China, Brazil, South Africa, India and Kenya, and found that between the years of 2008-2013, developing nations saw 143% growth in renewable energy, versus only 84% in developed countries.
The Climatescope project was originally put together in 2012 by Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance division, the U.K. Government Department for International Development, and the Inter-American Development Bank Group to track the growth of renewable energy in 26 Latin American and Caribbean nations.
This year, they added 19 African countries as well as 10 in Asia to give a wider look at the emergence of renewable energy worldwide.
From 2007 to 2013, those 55 developing countries added a total of 142 gigawatts of renewable energy to their power grids, and more than doubled their total investments in renewable energy, from $59.3 billion to $122 billion.
They also passed a combined 450 legislative measures relating to renewables, according to the Climatescope report.
So why are these developing nations investing in renewables so much faster than the developed world? Well usually it just makes financial sense, according to Ethan Zindler, an analyst in Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance department.
In a phone interview, he used Jamaica as an example. In Jamaica, wholesale power costs about $300 per megawatt-hour. According to Zindler, the country could generate the same amount of power using current solar panel technology for about half that price.
He also added that Nicaragua could similarly cut their costs in half by using wind power (the feature photo of this article is a wind farm on the coast of Lake Nicaragua).
“Clean energy is the low-cost option in a lot of these countries. The technologies are cost-competitive right now. Not in the future, but right now,”
he said.
Read the full story from Bloomberg.
Also, make sure to check out the Climatescope 2014 Report, which features cool interactive maps that rank the countries in terms of their overall investment in renewables!
Although there is some overlap in design features, Solar Roadways’ panels are perhaps more innovative than SolaRoad’s. The US couple’s hexagonal panels are studded with LED lights to make road lines and signs, and also feature heating elements to melt ice and snow.
For the next three years, SolaRoad will test out the path in order to gauge how much energy it is capable of producing and assess safety under different weather conditions. Because it can’t be adjusted to the position of the sun, the panels will generate approximately 30% less energy than those placed on roofs. However, the team anticipates that eventually it should be sufficient to power traffic lights, road lights, houses and electric cars. TNO’s Sten de Wit had a chat with the Guardian about the project, and he believes that up to 20% of the Netherlands’ 140,000 kilometers of road is suitable for conversion into solar roads, which could rake in a lot of energy.
As it’s still early days, production costs are unfortunately rather hefty. The pilot cycle path came with a $3.75 million (€3 million) price tag, which was mostly put up by the local authority. However, as the technology develops and production gets scaled-up, the price should drop.
olddogthoughts 
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